Mary Christmas…May It Be

Mary and Joseph made the newspaper in Rochester yesterday, and Mary earned a feature article in this month’s edition of Christianity Today. As I hustled around town earlier this week, I made one last stop at the Christian Bookstore and there, nestled on an endcap, was a book called Mary for Evangelicals. Mary seems to be making the news more this year than ever.

I’m not surprised that Mary has been long overlooked by so many evangelicals, myself included; mothers often are. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not starting the Invisible-mothers-now-and-then Club, not that it’s not a good idea. It’s just that I believe behind every child there is a mother who has bled, wept, worried, prayed, disciplined, taught, cooked, cleaned, and lost sleep for him or her. We certainly don’t do it for the recognition. We do it because God called us to this vocation.

I can’t wait to meet Mary some day. I bet we have a lot in common. We are both ordinary women doing the extraordinary things God calls us to do. I’m certainly not suggesting that I’m just like Mary, most days I have trouble just being the Vicki God has created me to be. But I hope that more often than not, I am just a little bit like her Son, Jesus, and I long for that resemblence to grow every day.

Luke 2:19 says that Mary “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” In that way I want to be like Mary. I choose to treasure God’s Word in my heart, studying the scriptures and applying them in my life. While I worship the Son, not the mother, on this Christmas Eve I thank Mary for her faith, her obedience, and her sacrifice. She changed the world when she said, “May it be.” At those three tiny words, God unleashed His power.

My Christmas prayer this year is that I would follow Mary’s example in her response to God. As I abide in my relationship with Christ, listen to His heart, and respond to His will, my desire is, by faith, to say, “May it be, Lord.”

Merry Christmas!

(Special Christmas hugs and kisses to Kadi, if you’re reading this from Texas. I love you. Mom)